OF SELBORNE 283 



"In the year 1377 William of Wykeham, out of his mere good 

 " will and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the prior and 

 "convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten 

 " marks eleven shillings and sixpence ; 1 and, a few years before 

 " he died, he made a free gift of one hundred marks to the same 

 " Priory : on which account the prior and convent voluntarily 

 " engaged for the celebration of two masses a day by two canons 

 "of the convent for ten years, for the bishop's welfare, if he 

 " should live so long ; and for his soul if he should die before the 

 " expiration of this term." 2 



At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder to us 

 how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose members were 

 exempt by their very institution from every means of personal and 

 family expense, could possibly run in debt without squandering 

 their revenues in a manner incompatible with their function. 



Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their re- 

 venues by fires among their buildings, or large dilapidations from 

 storms, &c. ; but no such accident appears to have befallen the 

 Priory at Selborne. Those situate on public roads, or in great 

 towns, where there were shrines of saints, were liable to be in- 

 truded on by travellers, devotees, and pilgrims ; and were subject 

 to the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at their gates to 

 partake of doles and broken victuals. Of these disadvantages 

 some convents used to complain, and especially those at Canter- 

 bun/ ; but this Priory, from it's sequestered situation, could seldom 

 be subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore we 

 must attribute it's frequent debts and embarrassments, well en- 

 dowed as it was, to the bad conduct of it's members, and a general 

 inattention to the interests of the institution. 



LETTER XVI. 



BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; and yet, 

 notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. I. of Beaufort's 

 Register is to be found. This loss is much to be regretted, as it 

 must unavoidably make a gap in the history of Selborne Priory, 

 and perhaps in the list of it's priors. 



1 Yet in ten years time we find, by the Notabilis Visitatio, that all their relics, 

 plate, vestments, 'title-deeds, &c. were in pawn. 



2 Lowth's Life of Wykeham, 



